Interlude in Hyperspace
by AnneCD
Summary: A brief encounter between the Imperial Agent and Kaliyo, her companion. I've never written a fic before, so reviews are definitely appreciated. Enjoy!


Chassa Raiani keyed the door panel shut and ordered the droids to raise ship. This done, she turned to Kaliyo and sighed. She needed to understand the Rattataki, and she wasn't sure how to start this conversation.

"Kaliyo..." she began. "We need to talk. I..."

"So we do," the enforcer replied. "My quarters?" Chassa hesitated, then nodded and followed her. Once there, Kaliyo tapped a button on her utility belt and the door slid closed behind Chassa. Kaliyo dropped comfortably onto the bed, and Chassa sat awkwardly next to her.

"So?" Kaliyo said. "Shoot."

Chassa took a deep breath. "Kaliyo, ever since I was trained at the academy, there's been a person I've been expected to be. Serving the Empire and its Emperor, serving the Sith, serving our people. That used to be so straightforward; I just followed Keeper's orders and did my job. And then I met you on Hutta, and everything stopped making sense. You're the kind of person I'm supposed to fight. I should hate you, Kaliyo! You stand for chaos and I for order!" She paused for breath.

Kaliyo simply nodded, a smile tugging at her lips. "And yet you don't," she murmured. "Why?"

"Ever since we met," Chassa said slowly, "I've realized that... on some level... I like it. I like the chaos I'm fighting against. I see joy in things that would have horrified me before. And I don't know why."

Kaliyo leaned closer to the agent. "There's balance, Chassa, in the world and in ourselves. The Sith and the Jedi are right about that, at least. And it's unnatural, it's insane, to keep half of that locked up - whichever half it is. And finding that balance, indulging both sides of yourself, is what you've been doing... and sure, that means some violence here and there." She smirked. "Besides, who doesn't like a good explosion every now and then?"

Chassa frowned. "That only raises more questions. Maybe I like this balance thing, maybe I like some chaos sometimes... but that's only half of it." She paused and glanced at the deck. "It's not just the chaos. You make me feel... I don't know how to describe it. Every instinct I have tells me to run away from you and... somehow... I want things to be the same way with us that they've been. I want..." She trailed off, gesturing helplessly. "I don't know what I want. And I used to."

Kaliyo shifted position subtly, moving her legs closer to Chassa's. She laid a hand on the other woman's cheek - so gently, Chassa thought, not like she would have expected from such a woman.

"You think you're the first?" Kaliyo said.

"What?" said Chassa. She didn't follow. Kaliyo couldn't possibly mean—

"Do you really think you're the first who tried to escape what you are by channeling it all into service, into suppressing your own needs?" She leaned still closer. "Your own desires?"

Barely breathing, Chassa whispered, "Kaliyo..."

"There are plenty of us in the military and Imperial Intelligence," the Rattataki said. (Us, thought Chassa. Us!) "What better way to forget what you want... to forget who you want... than to give yourself over to someone else's desires?"

Chassa couldn't speak. She gazed into the other woman's eyes, silently pleading with her to understand what she couldn't express.

Kaliyo saw. She understood. Her hand still rested on the agent's cheek. She let it drift down, so slightly, brushing against and cupping Chassa's jaw. She twisted it, just a little, tilting Chassa's head to the right. The other woman's eyes fluttered shut, by reflex as much as anything else, and Kaliyo's other arm circled around her waist, pulling Chassa to her. She felt her own eyes drift shut and her head tilt as she leaned in and kissed Chassa with a passion she'd never realized she could feel.

Chassa instinctively opened her mouth beneath Kaliyo's lips, feeling the alien tongue twist and probe within her mouth. She seized Kaliyo's hand and brought it beneath her jacket, moving the other's hand to her breast. Chassa gasped with pleasure as the hand squeezed, flooding her body with a surge of ecstasy. A moan escaped her as Kaliyo explored the curves of her chest.

And with a sudden movement, the hand was gone, the lips were gone, and Kaliyo was sitting at the far end of the bed.

She couldn't have formed words if she'd tried. As it was, she simply gazed at the other woman in mute shock.

"Well," said the Rattataki woman with a self-satisfied grin. "Was I right?"

Chassa nodded, still dumbstruck. Kaliyo rose. "Not that I'm complaining, but... don't we have someplace to be?"

The alarms were what roused Chassa from her gazing stupor. The ship was dropping out of hyperspace over Balmorra. She rearranged her top and moved towards the door, stopping and spinning abruptly when Kaliyo called her name.

Kaliyo was on her feet and pressing Chassa against the bulkhead, their lips joined again - but the kiss was brief, far too brief, and the mission had to come first. She smiled as she watched Chassa sprint out of the room.

"Let's continue this later, agent, shall we?" she murmured to thin air.


End file.
